If in the preexistence we looked forward to our mortal birth, how much more so must we have looked forward to our mortal death. I therefore set my hand this day to write my own obituary: Born in 1934, the youngest son, of the youngest son, of the youngest son, in Hooper, UT to Helen Froerer Stoddard and Earl S. Stoddard. Parents sold their chicken coop to pay for my birth. Tried all of my life to prove I was worth more than the chickens. Walked to and from school five miles in the snow, uphill both ways. I was so skinny, if I ate peas I looked like a string of beads, and if I drank tomato juice, I looked like a thermometer. As a boy, I earned all of my spending money selling newspapers, finding beer and pop bottles to get deposit, tying fishing flies to sell, guiding a blind man, cleaning wallpaper, running errands, babysitting, and working in a hardware store and shoe stores Summers and after school. Educated far beyond my intelligence in six colleges. Served Stake Mission and then Full Time Mission 1954-56 in the Western States Mission. Married far above myself to a sanctified woman, LaRae Cornia of South Weber, UT. Sired three, Eagle Scout, Missionary sons, James, Mark (deceased), and Paul; and three beautiful sainted daughters, Laura Belk, Lisa Reeves, and Amy Hunter.

Had many occupations: machinist at Hill Air Force Base; sold Plymouth, Studebaker, and Simca automobiles; operating engineer on railroad fill across the Great Salt Lake; crane operator (unloaded nearly all of the reinforcing rod that went into the Flaming Gorge Dam); worked construction at Geneva Steel, Kennecott Copper, Joes' Valley Dam, and BYU Fine Arts Center; loaded nearly all of the freeway fill through south end of Utah County; dispatcher for operating engineers; founded a children’s book company; instrument rated commercial pilot; VP of Osteon Corporation; President: Lasers International; sold school books and medical instruments in four states. Had many callings in the church: Stake Mission President; High Councilor in BYU Stake; Councilor in MTC Branch; Five year Stake Mission with wife. Did many other things: completed five marathons; found more than $1,700 Jogging; Director of BYU Media Marketing; sold more than 20,000 16mm BYU films; trained in China to do auricular therapy/medicine; successfully treated, without drugs or surgery, more than 18,000 patients for pain; Integrative Medicine Pain Specialist; invented and patented Biotape; author of book Pain Free for Life (84,000 copies sold); collected 76 of the World's Greatest Treasures; posed as Lorenzo Snow; actor in two motion pictures: 17 Miracles and Ephraim's Rescue; model for Wise Man in Nativity painting.

Aphorisms I love:

“The doctrine of the atonement is to my mind one of the surest proofs of the divine inspiration of Holy Scripture. Who would or could have thought of the just Ruler dying for the unjust rebel? This is no teaching of human mythology, or dream of poetical imagination. This method of expiation is only known among men because it is a fact; fiction could not have devised it. God himself ordained it; it is not a matter which could have been imagined.” - Charles H. Spugeon

“Groanings which cannot be uttered are often prayers which cannot be refused.” - Spurgeon

“Be good and you will be happy” - W.B. Stoddard

Aphorisms by me:

“There is no joy without sorrow. There can be no flowers without rain”- djs

“The good are better made by ill, as flowers crushed smell sweeter still” - djs

“There would be no rainbows if the heavens shed no tears”- djs

“Suffering and adversity are requisite to a broken heart and a contrite spirit, therefore I glory in my afflictions” - djs

I admonish all who read this: to sit down if you can't stand kissing, then Smile, it will make people wonder what you are up to.

I bequeath upon my posterity (and to all who have hope in Christ) that you will receive a great reward if you “seek to cloth the naked, feed the hungry, and liberate the captive.” My last will and testament is that my descendants have the pure love of Christ, that they “Receive all things with thankfulness,” that they “Have an eye single to His glory,” and that they “Be of good cheer,” knowing that He has overcome the world.

The family wishes to thank Intermountain Health Care and the nurses and aid, Kelly, Becky, and Joylyn for their tender care of our father.

A viewing will be held Friday, November 3, 2017, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Sundberg-Olpin Mortuary, 495 South State Street, Orem, Utah. Funeral services will be held Saturday, November 4, 2017, at 11 a.m. at the Edgemont 7th Ward, 555 East 3230 North, Provo, Utah, with a viewing held prior from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m.. Burial will be in the East Lawn Memorial Hills Cemetery, Provo.